March 26, 2012

Budgeting: The Hardest Thing

The hardest thing about budgeting isn't living on a budget. It's not being mindful of what I spend, or cutting back on things that I enjoy. It's not working on the spreadsheet, it's not finding creative ways to make more money, and it's definitely not talking about it.

The hardest thing about budgeting is tracking my expletive-expletive-something-something spending.

I've tried Quicken. (Blurgh.)

I've tried Mint.

I've tried cash only.

None of these things have worked for me for very long, and I'm not sure how I'm going to set up a system that works for both me and Seth, is free, and doesn't involve training a computer to understand me.

Ideas? Because as much as I enjoy working on the spreadsheet, it doesn't help me a whole lot if there's no connection to reality.t